COLLECTION D'ARNELL ANDREA - Tristesse des Mânes
CD - 14 tracks - Prikosnovénie

Collection d'Arnell Andréa have always occupied a unique place amidst both the francophone and international scene, given the particularity of their music, incomparable to any other, with their sonorities evoking a fin de siècle golden age, a Baudelairean autumnal Romanticism, a melancholic vein, drawn from the very essence of the literary and mundane spirit prevalent at the end of the 19th Century, and the beginning of the 20th, in this vital and innate approach of nature deemed intact, of forests radiant with the colours of fire, of rivers bathed in pastel shades, of fields in bloom and bewitching mists. The eternal autumn, recurring and main theme of their work, articulates itself around a gilded and privileged epoch, characterized by Romanticism and, inevitably, war, an epoch of refined cafés and trenches. After a long period of discographic silence, Collection d'Arnell Andréa are thus back with this miraculous album that had been talked about for long yet appeared shelved for good. Seven new pieces and seven recompositions of ancient works, relying on one of the most classical orchestrations that weds the grace and voluptuousness of the violoncello, the piano and the viola with la fragile voice of Chloé St-Liphard. An acoustic instrumentation that dwells on what the group essentially entails, in its classical and elitist roots, tinged with spleen and evasion, along the banks of the river Loire. An exhaustive autumnal promenade along this mythical river, its eternal landscapes, where the sentiments of dead leaves swirling about opaque mists conjure up past memories of a golden age again. The song of the earth, the poetic lament of a captivating act that has proved unique in its genre and of impressive talent, offering a new gem of autumn music. A seasonal record, an indispensable masterpiece.

Magnificent !

Stéphane F.
Winter 2003
Translation: Volker

Label : Prikosnovénie
www.multimania.com/prikos